ewf flash partitioning

[Matt Sullivan]

After much searching I finally sourced a SanDisk pcmcia flash card
(SDP3BI-256-201-80) that is apparently meant to be configured as a fixed
disk by default. I was quite dissapointed to find that when I put it in my
desktop xp machine it still appears as a removable disk. (And I can't create
multiple partitions for use with EWF.)

I've also tried 'ATCFWCHG /P /F' after booting into dos from the card
itself. The utility says 'pass', but the result under xp is the same.

Is there something I'm missing here? Do I need to do the partitioning from
within an XPe environment?
(I don't see why it would be any different, however I've got no other ideas
of what could be wrong.)

BTW: How is this normally handled in a production environment? It seems like
a kludge to have to manually partition, possibly run bootprep and then copy
the image. Can anyone recommend software to create/copy an entire disk image
to a pcmcia card under xp? (Preferably through a usb card reader, but I'd
settle for laptop pcmcia support.)

 

[Günter Wirth]

Hi,

In True IDE mode, the product reports 044Ah indicating the drive is not
removable (see datasheet).

To use Windows tools the removable flag must be deleted, otherwise it is not
possible to create partitions on the device.

You have to connect the CF over a adaptor directly to the IDE bus. If you
use a USB reader the device is still removable.

With Linux tools it's possible to create partitions with the removable flag.

Regards,
Günter

 

[Slobodan Brcin \(eMVP\)]

Hi Matt,

You can copy whole disk image with programs like Ghost. Or you can create similar simple program by your self.

Best regards,
Slobodan

 

[Matt Sullivan]

Thanks for the help, however I'm still a little confused and I think I may
have lead you slightly astray.

I am using PCMCIA ATA flash cards, not CF although I understand they're the
same electrical interface. My target hardware is a JLT8401 single board
computer with two pcmcia slots, no floppy or hdd support (
www.jltmobilecomputers.com .) I only use a usb reader because it's
convenient on my desktop pc. I've also tried partitioning in a couple of
different laptops with the same results.

The only thing that I have noticed different with my new SanDisk card is in
windows under the 'Volumes' tab of the disk properties the 'Partition Style'
is 'Master Boot Record' compared to 'Not Applicable' for the previous
devices I have tried.

What defines whether True IDE mode is used? Do I physically need an adapter
from PCMCIA to IDE, or will it work through the CardBus controller in a
laptop and the cirrus logic PCMCIA controller in the JLT computer?

I have found through experimentation that a windows 2000 laptop will allow
me to delete then existing partition, then create a new partition on this
disk, however it forces the first partition you create to be the size of the
entire disk.

I have in previously created multiple partitions under linux, however I
found that my windows systems (laptops and target xpe device) would only
recognise and use the first partition. Do you think I would have more
success with the latest SanDisk card?

There's one other piece of info that may or may not be relevant: The bios of
the JLT computer ("Insyde software version 1.01 (3.05-25)") detects a pcmcia
flash card in the first slot as the primary master. However a card in the
second slot is not detected by the bios. I'm not sure if this implies that
the first card at least is using "True IDE" mode? Or is this some
proprietary bios feature to support booting from pcmcia? (The bios also
supports the systemsoft cardboot functionality, however the bios detection -
and indeed booting from flash cards - works regardless of whether this is
enabled.)

Once again, thanks for the help,
Matt

 

[Günter Wirth]

Hi,

We use Linux to do the job, see dd, sfdisk or mkfs.msdos.

Regards,
Günter

 

[Matt Sullivan]

Günter,
Yes it's easy to create partitions etc under linux, but it serves no purpose
if my XPe device can't see them!

I have now had a reply from SanDisk who confirm that the device will only
appear as a fixed disk when used in true ide mode through an adapter to an
ide bus.

Thus EWF CANNOT BE USED FOR ANY FLASH DEVICE CONNECTED THROUGH A PCMCIA
SLOT.
(Except as a ram overlay for a single partition.)

If this is incorrect, I welcome anyone to point out where I'm going wrong.
Otherwise this should really be documented somewhere - I wish I had known
this weeks ago and saved myself the trouble of finding a flash card with the
fixed bit set!

thanks,
Matt